Beef Shares: Gordon Farms

The Capital Region is blessed with many produce CSAs, but few people know of the many beef shares/meat CSAs that have popped-up in recent years. Eat Local’s new Beef Share Series aims to highlight the quality local beef that regional farmers are offering. I hope this series helps dear readers learn about beef raising practices and understand what sets these featured farms apart from convention beef production. First in this series is Gordon Farms, located in Knox, NY. The interview was conducted with Sandy Gordon, owner and operator of Gordon Farms.

How long have you been raising beef?

My late wife, Mary Ellen, and I started raising beef cows together on a farm we rented in Preston Hollow, NY in the late 1970’s.

How did you get into farming? What is the background of your farm?

I grew up on my parents’ sheep, dairy and Morgan horse farm, Trefoil Farm, in Middleburgh, NY, which my father purchased in 1946. By the age of five, I was feeding the animals and taking care of some of the daily chores. When I was 19, I started Gordon Hay & Straw Company, Inc. Through that business, I produced, marketed and trucked hay all over the Northeast, and occasionally beyond. In the late 1970’s, I met Mary Ellen, and rented a small farm in Preston Hollow where we started raising our first herd of beef cattle. Over the course of 5-and-a-half years we grew the herd to 48 head. In 1983, we sold the herd and used the proceeds to purchase the farmhouse and original 30 acres of Gordon Farms in Knox, N.Y. where I still live and operate today. In the early days, we focused solely on hay production, building Gordon Hay & Straw Co. In 1986, we got back into raising beef cattle. As fuel prices and trucking costs increased, we sold Gordon Hay and Straw Co. in 1995. Since then, we have been continuing to produce hay for our own grass fed beef cows and a handful of customers, but have been primarily focusing on growing our cattle herd. Today, the farm encompasses more than 140 owned acres on two separate parcels on Beebe Road in Knox.

What is the size of your herd/how many head of cattle do you raise yearly? What breed(s) do you raise?

Presently, the farm is home to about 80 beef cows. About one-third are our mother cows, one-third are yearlings and two-year-olds, and one-third are newborn calves. All of our cows are a mixed breed of Angus and Hereford. We started with Herefords in the 1980’s, largely because of their docile demeanor and ease to handle. The Hereford breed is also renowned for being very low in cholesterol. The original female Herefords we had on the farm back then, Sally and Gina, continue to be the genetic foundation of the herd today. About 10 years ago, we began breeding Angus into the herd by bringing in registered Angus bulls. The Angus genetics add a classic flavor to the beef, and promotes strength and heartiness in the animals.

How are your cattle raised?

Our cows are 100% grass fed. In the summer, cows rotationally graze nearly 100 acres of the farm. Recently, we have begun employing the use of mobile fencing to increase the frequency of grazing rotations. In the winter, the cows eat the pesticide- and herbicide-free hay crop we harvest from our fields each summer. The winter barnyard employs a number of agricultural best management practices, including nutrient management, manure storage and water runoff control. The cows drink from a geothermally-heated automatic watering system when they’re home at the barn in the wintertime; we also use solar fencers to power our fencing infrastructure away from the homestead. We do everything we can to maximize the sustainability of our operation.

How many pounds of beef do you process and sell annually?

Presently, we are selling approximately two full cows a month. This translates into about 6,500 lbs of processed beef cuts per year.

Do you slaughter and butcher the cattle yourself/on your farm?

All of our beef is processed at Double-L Ranch in Altamont, N.Y., less than 15 miles away from the farm. Double-L Ranch is a USDA inspected meat processing facility, which is required by law for retail sale of beef products.

Are there any special practices you employ when processing beef?

I take the animals two at a time to Double-L Ranch to keep each other company and reduce their stress in transport. They arrive at an appointed time and are processed immediately.

What is your most popular cut of beef?

This is hard to say. We frequently get the compliment that our grass fed ground beef makes the “best burger I’ve ever had!” Recently, we’ve been having quite a few customers purchase our sandwich steaks, too, a thinly sliced package of steak perfect for making a cheesesteak or other steak sandwich. My daughter, Sarah, who owns and operates FarmieMarket, coined a signature sandwich using the sandwich steak with the Italian Dressed Feta she offers on her website from Goats & Gourmets – she calls it the Heldeberg Cheesesteak! When I list our filet mignon or New York Strip Steaks on FarmieMarket, they rarely last more than a few days before they are sold out. Rib-eyes are also a popular summer grilling item, and people love the short-ribs in the winter for making chili.

Where/how do you sell your products?

About four years ago, I made the transition from selling wholesale to exclusively selling directly to the end consumer. Since then, our beef sales receipts have doubled, and they are on track to triple as I work to increase our capacity and bring in more pastureland. I sell my products through two channels, including retail sales and through the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Share program Sarah and I designed for the farm. Presently, I have 26 families engaged in the CSA program; each family receives a monthly home delivery of select cuts from the farm. A regular share includes 6-7 lbs of mixed cuts including filet mignon, ground beef, sirloin steaks, sandwich steaks, short ribs, t-bones, and other cuts; family shares receive 12-13 lbs per month. The shares are available for sale directly from the farm, or on FarmieMarket. I also list individual cuts for sale so that customers can pick and choose what they want and have it delivered to their home with products from other farms that sell products on the online farmers’ market.

What do you charge for your beef/price per pound?

On the farm, the average price per pound is $7.95. This is the rate at which we sell ground beef, and many of our other cuts. Cuts that include more bone, like short-ribs, we sell for $6.95/lb, or cross-cut shanks go for $5.95/lb. Sandwich steaks and rib-eyes are $8.95/lb, sirloin steaks and New York strip steaks are $9.95/lb. Our most premium cut, filet mignon, goes for $14.95/lb (this figures out to about $5.60 for a 6 oz. portion).

What should consumers look for when buying beef?

To me, cows are biologically and evolutionarily designed to eat grass, not corn. Feeding a cow grass keeps the pH of its stomach low, keeping the cow in better health. It also increases the omega-3 density of the cow’s diet, which passes to people when we eat grass fed beef. Furthermore, healthy cows that don’t grow up on an e.coli-ridden feed lot don’t need antibiotics. We graze our cows on pasture for two-thirds of the year, and raise them to be antibiotic free; we also do not inject them with any hormones.

The best way to buy beef is to buy it directly from a small local farm that has its beef processed locally. This way, the farmer can tell you exactly what the cow ate during its life, and you can rest easy knowing no pink-slime or other additives were mixed into your beef.

Do you offer other meat or products besides beef?

At this time, the only livestock we have on the farm is beef cattle. I do, however, raise a small diversified crop of vegetables. I have also recently begun growing shiitake mushrooms. Plus, I sell our grass fed compost by the truckload from the farm during gardening season.

What do you think is the biggest obstacle for farmers and ranchers that raise and sell quality meat on small farms?

To me, the biggest challenge for small farmers these days is access to markets. For years, I tried my hand at attending some of the farmers’ markets in the Capital Region. I found that it took a tremendous amount of time out of my summer hay-making schedule, and my sales rarely proved to be worth the time I sacrificed on the farm. Plus, most markets are closed in the winter-time when I actually had the time to sit at a booth for a few hours. I also tried selling wholesale to restaurants, but found that I was constantly being nickeled and dimed in price negotiations; restaurants would drop my product if they found another farm willing to sell theirs for $0.05/lb less.

Selling direct-to-consumers has worked very well for me, through a combination of CSA Share sales and retail sales. There is no doubt that demand for grassfed beef, and products from small, environmentally- and socially-responsible farms is growing. Farmers will sell their products if they can find an effective and efficient method to market.

Additionally, attaining financing from banks for small agricultural operations is nearly impossible, and grants for for-profit farms are nearly never available.